 Welcome to the anxious morning every weekday morning. We'll take a few minutes to go over some important lessons that you can use in your anxiety recovery journey Away from the endless noisy scroll of social media. The anxious morning brings you support education inspiration encouragement and empowerment for more visit us at the anxious morning dot-com a Few days ago on a zoom call. I had someone say this to me You think I've come a long way look at you You're writing in journals telling me to be kind to myself and making reels with Kardashian audio We laughed then I got out to call and laughed even harder Then I got kind of emotional over what she said to me. I had not even considered any of that I've been talking to this person for over a year now as they go through their anxiety recovery journey I can clearly see the tremendous changes they've undergone and the amazing progress they've made But I had totally looked right past the fact that I am making changes in progress to who knew When this person trained floodlights on the changes I'd undergone in a year It brought up an idea that I already knew but had mistakenly abandoned and forgotten It is a powerful idea that really had a huge impact on my own recovery journey Helping also helps the helper It's true While I'm fortunate to not be dealing with my own recovery anymore the act of helping in this context is still helping me It helps me to become more well-rounded in my approach It helps me to stay aware of the real struggle even many years after mine It makes me a better more empathetic listener It teaches me to be more of a cheerleader and less of an instructor when the situation warrants it Helping aids me in developing tools and strategies that I can use in my own life I can go on the point is helping is still helping the helper even many years later Why am I telling you all this? Because helping other people can also help you When you share your experiences your struggles and the lessons you learn along the way those lessons become deeper and broader When you give a struggling person advice You also help yourself recognize and take that same advice that you might sometimes struggle to take When you explain a thing that you know you take a step beyond just knowing and toward truly understanding and when you understand You can start to utilize and integrate When you help others by showing kindness and compassion when they need it You learn to show kindness and compassion to yourself and to anyone struggling in any context even outside anxiety recovery When you shine a light for somebody who is behind you on the recovery path You also shine a light on your own wins and your own progress Something we often forget to acknowledge Helping helps the helper even when the helper feels like they need help themselves So today think about how you can reach out to someone else. How can you inspire? How can you encourage? How can you empower? What have you done or learned that you can share? You may think that you are in no position to help anyone but the odds are high that you have something to offer Offering it can be surprisingly impactful. So give it a try Tomorrow we'll look at the relationship between seeking searching and doing in recovery Hey, if you're enjoying the podcast and you'd like to get a copy of it delivered every morning into your email inbox Including a full text transcription head on over to the anxious morning dot email and sign up for the newsletter And if you're listening on iTunes or Spotify or someplace where you can leave us a rating or review Take a moment and rate the podcast and maybe write a small review. It really helps us out or just tell a friend about us Thanks a lot